wise

/waɪz/

/waɪz/

Other forms: wiser; wisest; wises

The adjective wise describes someone who has experience and a deep understanding. Your wise older sister always gives the best advice.

When you make a decision based on careful thought and good judgment, you've made a wise choice. If someone calls you a wise guy, though, it's not a compliment: it's likely to be a criticism of your joke at someone else's expense or your rudeness. To wise off (or sometimes, to be wise), has a similar meaning: to talk back or be disrespectful.

Definitions of wise

1. adjective

   having or prompted by wisdom or discernment
   “a wise leader”

   “a wise and perceptive comment”

   synonyms:

   advisable

   worthy of being recommended or suggested; prudent or wise

   advised, well-advised

   having the benefit of careful prior consideration or counsel

   politic

   marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness

   prudent

   careful and sensible; marked by sound judgment

   all-knowing, omniscient

   infinitely wise

   perspicacious, sagacious, sapient

   acutely insightful and wise

   owlish

   resembling an owl; solemn and wise in appearance

   sapiential

   characterized by wisdom, especially the wisdom of God

   sage

   having wisdom that comes with age and experience

   antonyms:

   foolish

   devoid of good sense or judgment

   inadvisable, unadvisable

   not prudent or wise; not recommended

   ill-advised, unadvised

   without careful prior deliberation or counsel

   impolitic

   lacking tact, shrewdness, or prudence

   imprudent

   not prudent or wise

   absurd, cockeyed, derisory, idiotic, laughable, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous

   incongruous;inviting ridicule

   asinine, fatuous, inane, mindless, vacuous

   devoid of intelligence

   cockamamie, cockamamy, goofy, sappy, silly, wacky, whacky, zany

   ludicrous, foolish

   fond

   absurd or silly because unlikely

   harebrained, insane, mad

   very foolish

   ill-conceived, misbegotten, misguided

   poorly conceived or thought out

   rattlebrained, rattlepated, scatterbrained, scatty

   lacking sense or discretion

   unwise

   showing or resulting from lack of judgment or wisdom
2. adjective

   marked by the exercise of good judgment or common sense in practical matters
   “a wise decision”

   synonyms: heady, judicious

   prudent

   careful and sensible; marked by sound judgment
3. adjective

   evidencing the possession of inside information
   synonyms: knowing, wise to

   informed

   having much knowledge or education
4. adjective

   improperly forward or bold
   “Don't get wise with me!”

   synonyms: fresh, impertinent, impudent, overbold, sassy, saucy, smart

   forward

   used of temperament or behavior; lacking restraint or modesty
5. noun

   a way of doing or being
   “in no wise”

   “in this wise”

   type of:

   fashion, manner, modality, mode, style, way

   how something is done or how it happens